Chapter 72.2 – Preparation
Jiang Yujin paused his words, “You know what happened afterward.”
A past that he had not mentioned to anyone before, he spoke of it now casually, even pouring himself a glass of water.
The water turned out to be hot, and he took a sip, unexpectedly scalding his mouth. He stood up to find cold water.
The barber shop owner watched him move around the shop, and when he finally found cold water and drank it, he asked, “Did you ask Xu Tonggui how he survived?”
Jiang Yujin nodded, “I asked.”
They speculated that the ability to come back might be due to the Game’s self-preservation mechanism. If a strange species knew self-preservation, the Game probably did too.
If the circumstances at that time were brought into a regular game, it might be more easily explained. A game needs players and NPCs; players are them, strange species are NPCs, and Little Zero is the game’s NPC database. Whether it’s missing players or NPCs, the game can’t function normally. If the database is damaged or even deleted by more than half, the game can’t run properly and needs to reload from a saved state before the damage occurred.
Similar to the phenomenon of dungeon restarts occurring in the Game before, although the mechanism wasn’t fully understood, it was a plausible explanation.
With a significant portion of the crucial database destroyed, the Game began to collapse. The Game itself might be trying to repair, but the speed of repair could never match the speed of collapse. The remaining few dungeons might be the result of the Game’s efforts to repair, preventing them from shattering like many others.
The consequence of these changes was that both Xu Tonggui and Little Zero survived but couldn’t return to the initial state completely. One ended up in a remote corner and was picked up by the SIU, recognized, secretly hidden in a sanatorium, lying in a coma for several years; the other was in a severely injured state and was found by Zero’s people.
Originally, Zero’s people found Little Zero, but with more and more in-depth research, Zero had become the dominated one. The original human research on strange species had turned into Little Zero researching itself, constantly uncovering more of its own abilities.
Judging by the appearance of the Zero headquarters they had visited before, there were not many people inside who truly had self-awareness. The seemingly prosperous and orderly scene in the city was just a created illusion, probably to deceive big bosses like Lu Dongcheng to invest and continue their research.
Branch members were diligently continuing their research for the headquarters, constantly experimenting, releasing strange species, finding test subjects. In reality, they were working solely for a monster.
Little Zero had always been in control, always observing humans, and it could be seen that it had learned quite a lot.
After chatting for a while, Citizen Jiang took another sip of water. This time he didn’t make a mistake; he drank plain cold water, soothing his throat.
The barber shop owner never believed that this person would come here out of the blue to tell him so much. The previous cigarette had burned out unnoticed, and he extinguished it before lighting another one.
Indeed, the person opposite him set down the water cup, smiled at him, and said, “The main reason I’m here is to ask for your help.”
Regarding the crystal of the flesh pile, Little Zero would never expose its weakness in the research. The information the high school students obtained certainly wouldn’t have this detail, and if they were to confront it, the previous events might repeat.
Both Xiao Pang and Zhang Xin had families, and judging by the temperament of his big son, it wasn’t hard to imagine the situation that would unfold.
He wasn’t very interested in the fight against antisocial organizations or overthrowing the source of evil, but he had raised his big son for so many years…probably not that many years, but in any case, the point was that his big son, who had been nurtured for so long, couldn’t die.
So someone had to tell them this information.
The barber shop owner’s eyebrows twitched, and he almost extinguished the cigarette in his hand, “How am I supposed to tell them?”
In any case, this matter fell into his lap. The person who assigned the task had two sips of water, then left effortlessly, saying before leaving, “If there’s anything, you can find Shi Bu. He just returned from a business trip and should be free. If you tell him what needs to be done, he’ll definitely cooperate.”
*
Halfway through the short break, during this time, Chen Jing and Zhang Xin often went to the place where Xiao Pang lived. The route was fixed, but the timing was uncertain.
After Xiao Pang called saying he had discovered something again, Zhang Xin set out from home once more, heading to Xiao Pang’s place.
For the past few days after returning from the trip, she had been going out a lot, causing her parents to worry, thinking that their child had reached the age when she should secretly start dating.
Today, rain had been falling since early morning, and it still showed no signs of stopping. People walking on the road held umbrellas, hastily passing by, splashing water everywhere. All the scenes seemed blurred.
By the old pond in a park built many years ago where usually there weren’t many people, two individuals stood, both holding umbrellas, leaning against the railing. The umbrella covered the part above the shoulders, making it unclear, but she felt strangely familiar.
There was an impression in her mind, but she couldn’t recall where she had seen them.
As they passed each other, she heard someone say, “Atsha.”
Zhang Xin’s footsteps came to a halt.
…
Chen Jing and Xiao Pang had been waiting for Zhang Xin at Xiao Pang’s house for about half an hour. When the door finally opened, the other person hadn’t even had time to close her umbrella. After confirming that the soundproof door of the small laboratory was closed, she urgently said, “I know what we should do now.”
There was no need to continue aimlessly researching in various directions. What they needed to do was to find a method for individuals who, after being parasitized or dominated by [0], still retained self-awareness and autonomy, or more simply put, to find antibodies.
Compared to the previous aimless wandering, it was evident that they now had a clear purpose.
Xiao Pang asked, “How do you know all this?”
Zhang Xin said she ran into Shi Bu. She originally didn’t know who the two people standing by the pond were, but later, when she heard one of them say they had returned from a business trip to Atsha, she connected the dots and realized that person might be Shi Bu.
The subsequent conversation between the two individuals confirmed her speculation.
Although the dialogue seemed like scripted exchanges, it didn’t matter much, as long as the information was sufficient.
Chen Jing asked, “Do you have any impression of the other person?”
Zhang Xin shook her head. She vaguely felt that the figure had some familiarity, but couldn’t recall where she had seen it—probably just someone with a similar physique she had encountered somewhere.
She added, “But the voice sounds somewhat familiar.”
She felt like she had heard it somewhere, but couldn’t remember at the moment. Choosing not to dwell on it for now, she finally remembered that she was still holding an umbrella with water, so she closed it.
*
Xiaoxiaole ran out of energy, the soap opera wasn’t on a rerun, and both his big son and the barber shop owner had left, Citizen Jiang spent the afternoon lying at home. As he watched the sky gradually darken, he finally felt the boredom setting in.
The rain outside continued unabated, making the usual gossip session impossible. All he could do was regretfully cancel it.
After lying on the sofa with the big goose for a while, Citizen Jiang chose to send money to Xiaoxiaole between chatting with the tavern owner and going to sleep.
Just as he was about to successfully send the money, the door was knocked.
He put on slippers and opened the door. The moment the door opened, along with the cold wind from outside, a sweet fragrance filled the room. The man standing outside, holding an umbrella and a tender pink box, had one shoulder soaked.
Citizen Jiang exclaimed, adopting a leader’s tone, “Comrade Little Xu has arrived.”
Comrade Little Xu handed him the tender pink box, and the fragrance became even more intense as he passed it over. He said, “I got off work early today and happened to see this cake on the way.”
He had received a message from this person earlier, mentioning feeling bored, and since his son wasn’t at home, he decided to come over.
Citizen Jiang took the box, offered him a pair of slippers, and placed the sweet-smelling box on the table. He glanced at the water on the man’s body and hair, then turned to find a new dry towel.
However, due to neglecting household chores for many years, he couldn’t find a new towel for a moment, so he simply grabbed his own towel.
He gestured for the guest, Little Xu, to sit on the sofa and stood behind him, using the towel in a somewhat random and unorganized manner, patting, rubbing, and wiping his hair. It wasn’t exactly systematic, but luckily, Little Xu’s hair was resilient.
Feeling the chaotic treatment on his head, Little Xu raised his eyes and asked, “Boss, when will I receive the job notification?”
“Young man, don’t be in a hurry,” Boss Jiang patted his head and said, “You’ll start working when you get along well with my son.”
After finishing his statement, Boss Jiang put down the towel, went into his room, and returned with a set of keys, the spare keys to the main door. He tossed the keys to Little Xu and said, “Consider this an advance payment for your salary.”
Little Xu caught the keys steadily and carefully put them in his pocket.
After the hair-drying session came the delicious and sweet little cake session. The cake box was well-protected, with no water splashes, and the cake itself was indeed delightful.
Before the big son came back, Cannot-Be-Seen Xu, who had not officially taken up his post, left. Before leaving, he casually took the trash bag from the living room trash can. However, as soon as he lifted it, the sound of clashing empty liquor cans rang out.
“…”
The person who had been comfortably lying on the sofa suddenly became alert, opening his half-closed eyes.
As expected, in an instant, the gaze of the person standing nearby turned in his direction.
